Ward will fight the winner of Froch vs. Kessler in any country in the world (as long as it’s USA)

By Thomas Cowan: WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward seems to be extremely confused about what he wants from his next fights. When asked recently if he would want a rematch with Carl Froch or Mikkel Kessler, Ward told ES News, “I don’t care what country it’s in, it’s not going the distance.” Ward then seems to change his mind saying, “People have to understand that I don’t have to go to the UK to be a star, they have to come here if they want to be considered all-time greats.”

After Froch beat Yusuf Mack in November, Ward also posted a tweet suggesting he would like to fight in the UK but he now seems to be going back of his word. It looks like Ward is scared to fight outside USA. Surely a fighter that holds 2 out of 4 world titles should be prepared to go out any corner of the world to fight a guy he knows he can dominate if he can capture the IBF title and move a step closer to unifying the division. It’s not like Ward can take his pick out of many potential massive fights. He was about tofight no-hoper Kelly Pavlik before he suffered a shoulder injury. A unification bout with Froch in 2014 if the Brit can get past Kessler and mandatory Canadian challenger Adonis Stevenson, which I expect he will, would be a huge fight and Ward to prove he’s not a scared hometown fighter and travel across the pond to fight the Cobra if necessary.

Ward’s jibe about Froch dropping his name to gain publicity is a joke. Froch is always going to have major publicity because he’s British. Britain is a small island with 3 world champions in Froch, Ricky Burns and Nathan Cleverly. Cleverly is still a paper champion fighting journeyman, Amir Khan’s in the process of rebuilding his confidence and David Haye may never fight again so it’s pretty much Froch or Burns for the Brits. This is why the Cobra will always have a huge following without dropping Ward’s name. Ward on the other hand will have fought once in 18 months by the time he starts training for his next fight and outside of his hometown Oakland he isn’t a big deal at all. He failed to sell out the Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City for the Super Six Final and frankly with brash, exciting Floyd Mayweather the pound-for-pound and pay-per-view king and young talents with knockout power like Adrien Broner and Danny Garcia, USA just isn’t that interested in a boring defensive fighter like Ward although he is without a doubt extremely talented.

For these reasons, Ward should just come to the UK and fight Froch and if he proves he can win outside USA, becoming undisputed Super Middleweight king in the process, he should move up a division and fight Chad Dawson in a highly anticipated rematch at Dawson’s natural weight.